Inkjet printing is a type of printing that propels drops of ink (also referred to as droplets) onto a medium, such as paper, a substrate for 3D printing, etc. The core of an inkjet printer includes one or more print heads (referred to herein as inkjet heads) having multiple ink channels arranged in parallel to discharge droplets of ink. A typical ink channel includes a nozzle, a chamber, and a mechanism for ejecting the ink from the chamber and through the nozzle, which is typically a piezoelectric actuator connected to a diaphragm. To discharge a droplet from an ink channel, a drive circuit provides a drive waveform to the piezoelectric actuator of the ink channel that includes a jetting pulse. In response to the jetting pulse, the piezoelectric actuator generates pressure oscillations inside of the ink channel to push the droplet out of the nozzle. The drive waveforms provided to individual piezoelectric actuators control how droplets are ejected from each of the ink channels.
In an attempt to reduce the size of inkjet heads, the ink channels within the inkjet heads are moved closer together. Also, Drop on Demand (DoD) printing is moving towards higher productivity and quality, which requires small droplet sizes ejected at high jetting frequencies. The print quality delivered by an inkjet head depends on ejection or jetting characteristics, such as droplet velocity, droplet mass (or volume/diameter), jetting direction, etc. The performance of inkjet heads may be hindered by residual vibrations and crosstalk within the inkjet head. Crosstalk is a phenomenon where a jetting of a droplet in one ink channel creates an undesired effect in another ink channel. Crosstalk between ink channels may create variations in the jetting characteristics of the ink channels. For example, crosstalk may cause the droplet mass or droplet velocity to be decreased from a normal case (i.e., where there is no crosstalk). It is therefore desirable to mitigate the effects of crosstalk in an inkjet head to achieve high quality printing.